Posted on 04/24/2007 1:41:07 PM PDT by devane617
An owner of an exotic animal farm has died after being kicked and then sat on by a camel.
Cathie Ake and the 4-year-old camel were being filmed by a local television station on Sunday when the camel kicked her and then sat down during a break in filming. The station was doing a story on Mini-Akers Exotic Animals, the 15-acre farm Ake owned with her husband.
Cathie Ake's husband, Donnie Ake, said he would find a new home for Polo, the camel, The News Herald of Panama City reported Tuesday. He believes the 1,800-pound animal was agitated by mating season.
The couple bought the camel at an auction three weeks ago and kept him in a 50 foot by 80 foot pen.
''My wife did a lot of rescue,'' Donnie Ake said. ``She wouldn't let an animal suffer.
``We might not have food in the house, but she made sure they had something to eat.''
A reporter called 9-1-1 when Ake fell under the camel.
''To be honest with you, I don't think there's much that she could have done,'' said Gulf County Sheriff Dalton Upchurch.
A deputy and paramedics moved the camel and recovered Cathie Ake's body.
Donnie Ake said he believes his wife either suffocated or was crushed by the animal. The Akes started their exotic animal farm nearly 10 years ago.
Please add me to the camels of mass destruction ping list.
see post #41
Done. This is a low-volume but very critical ping list.
And pax_et_bonum has the Donkeys of Mass Destruction ping list if you would like to be included on that one as well.
And really, we can’t even blame him for those remarks because he likely said a lot of things, but the press chose which of his remarks to publish. So he may have talked about his beloved wife for 3 hours and made only one comment about the camel and the press published the one comment about the camel. No way to know, and therefore no reason to harangue him for the one comment that was published.
Dude, lions, tigers, and bears aren’t beasts of burden. Camels, cows, and horses are. There’s a difference. Not to mention the whole carnivore vs. herbivore thing. Not to mention the whole predator vs. prey thing. Not to mention there is a difference between trained and domesticated. Camels are domesticated. Lions, tigers, and bears are not.
My dad smoked camels. I dont remember anything like this though.
Didn’t they object?
My dad was on the biting end of a camel when he served in Tunisia during WW2. Said they had a nasty bite.
A burning cigarette applied to a sensitive part of the camel anatomy would have done the trick if no more sophisticated equipment was at hand.
Florida (where I live) is stuffed with people who “rescue” various critters. You can go by fields full of zebras, camels and even the occasional giraffe, all of them “rescued” from circuses and other entertainment organizations that either winter in Florida or are headquartered here.
The “rescuers” are very well meaning, but they are often total flakes and seem to forget that these are ANIMALS. Meaning that they don’t think like humans. In fact, they don’t think at all. Attacks on their “rescuers” are not uncommon. Remember the guy in California who had his face and sexual organs ripped off by a mature chimp he and his wife had rescued?
Most of these animals should simply have been put down. They can’t live in the wild and we don’t have their type of “wild” here anyway. Maybe the people who “adopt” them should consider doing something for human beings instead. For example, they could give that money to some group that helps poor people in India buy oxen or goats and thus be benefitting both the people and the animals.
In the first place Camels are one of the oldest domesticated animals in the world. Riendeer being the oldest. Other Camalids such as Llamas and Alpacas were domesticated very early as well. I have owned both.
I also have Donkeys and Horses and I am quite aware that Donkeys kill alot of people every year. Some say more than die in airplane crashes.
The thing is with this person is they bought this camel from an auction. Buying from an auction is fine if you actually know what to do with the animal. I wouldn’t advise buying a horse from an auction if you have limited experience with horses and certianly not a Camel. Also the Camel was pry more than a bit mad at being confined to a 50x80 pin if you want to go down that road. Or here is another MORE LIKELY possibility. The camel was not trained properly when younger and typical camel behaviour that is considered cute for a young camel wasn’t broken.... Camels like to run up to each other and sort of bump into each other as a sign of affection. Now if you don’t break a young camel from doing this to humans in captivity they can really hurt someone... it’s a sign of affection that can kill a person if they don’t know how to handle camels.
But no Camels are not wild animals..... they are domestic animals and have been for quite some time and a person can get hurt around many domestic animals if they don’t know what they are doing..... including cats and dogs....
There are good reasons for owning camels........ research that on your own cos it would fill a few pages. however I don’t think this person’s reasons were good and I don’t think they did enough research into caring for a Camel before hand.
I would be more for buying condoms and birth control for all those poor humans so they would stop breeding....
Most animal rescuers are flakes.... again there are good reasons for raising camels look it up........ “rescuing them from and auction” however is looney if you don’t know about Camels....
So I will continue to raise “exotic” livestock and my work with permaculture cos I think my money is better suited doing that then giving it to people to have more and more children they can’t feed.
thing is most people are so unaware of animals in general that they think only dogs and cats are domestic animals.... to people in the city horses are exotic animals...
right now I have two llamas, a donkey, two horses and about 30 sheep.. My sheep are mostly barbado.... to some people by appearence alone they would consider them exotic animals... but that would be purely out of their own ignorance.
However my livestock isn’t confined like what I saw in the video from the Florida woman.... they have rolling pastures to graze in.
What you’ve said makes perfect sense.
I feel very sad for her husband.
So even though the Camel, as a species, is domesticated, we don’t know anything about this particular camel other than that this couple only had the camel for 3 weeks. So it’s unlikely they knew the camel’s personality very well.
The husband talked about the camel being agitated because it was breeding season (or something like that), but it should be noted that a bunch of cameras in any animal’s face is a stressful situation unless the animal has been trained and exposed to that chaos. So it’s quite possible the camel was stressed out because of the photo shoot itself. And in my personal experience, photographers often get so into what they are doing and trying to get the perfect photo that they pay no attention to the animal’s body cues or stress level. I have watched photographers get right in the face of completely freaked-out and traumatized dogs rescued from Katrina’s nightmare and expect the dog to calmly “sit” and look cute for the camera. Some of the stuff I’ve seen, it’s a wonder the dog didn’t bite the camera and attack the cameraman.
It may not have been all that smart to do a photo shoot with a camel that you barely know. But I don’t have all the facts, so perhaps they knew the camel for years before adopting it; perhaps the camel has been around photographers it’s whole life. I don’t know enough about the situation to judge. Whatever happened, I do agree it’s odd that the witnesses weren’t able to get the camel off the woman before paramedics arrived.
“...and I am quite aware that Donkeys kill alot of people every year. Some say more than die in airplane crashes.”
Damn good thing we don’t let them fly aircraft. Think of how that could screw up the statistics.
Sorry.
That is exactly the problem they had the animal for 3 weeks and bought it from an auction. I buy from auctions and have one this weekend in fact. However you have to give the animal some time to adjust to you and it’s new environment before ya start doing television interviews with it.
Auctions can be a place to buy or sell animals if you know what you are doing. If you don’t then don’t buy. Seriously don’t buy. Camels in the US are not your everyday livestock and to get a decent one you are gonna pay in excess of 5000 up over 70000. However you can pick up such animals for a few hunderd dollars at auctions at times. There are usually reasons the animals are being sold at auctions... IE a cull animal, a problem animal. For a first time camel buyer or any cameliad Llamas Alpacas I would suggest either getting a female or a gelding. Definately not a 4 year old male at an auction. It’s like someone getting a Stallion right off the bat without ever even riding a horse.
Problem I have is that everytime something like this happens with an animal that people get in their heads as being an “exotic” the public outcry is to ban ownership of all such animals even by those who know what they are doing.
Yes the same thing happens with certian breeds of dogs at times IE Pit Bulls and Rotties and in the distant past German Shepards and Dobies.
Also people make statements when things like this happen that it’s always happening with owners of exotics... which is not exactly true.... things happen like this sometimes as with any job risk. But they are not the norm as people would think. If they were than a story like this wouldn’t be getting as much attention as it is. It simply would not. It’s getting coverage cos it’s a strange, odd, not the norm story.
Maybe we should ban cars since so many car accidents happen everyday. People get hurt in factories everyday so why not ban factories. People slip on wet floors in malls and supermarkets so lets ban malls and supermarkets. ETC ETC
Certian “Animal Rights” groups like to use these types of few and far between stories to push their agenda (religion) on the public. Stuff like someone with an Illegal Tiger in the City and the next thing you know there is a law against having a flipping Anole.
Feel sorry for the people. But After seeing their set up in the videos I wasn’t really impressed..... Not enough room for the Camel or their Llamas or other animals. IE too many animals on 15 acres segregated into too small of pins..... camels enclosure was a bit barren with just a round bale of hay in the middle.
My Llamas, Sheep, Horses, and Donkeys at times have access to all our pastures except when we block them into one or another for their protection.... but they still have alot more room than these folks gave theirs. They perfer some areas to others. Our forest pasture is their favorite with rolling hills and lots of trees in the summer in the winter ya can’t get them away from the central pasture with it’s barns and such.
So not all people who own or breed “exotics” have them in poor quality set ups.
One other thing...... if you are BUYING animals you are not a “rescuer” you are a buyer or collector of animals.
Where I live there was a so called “exotic animal rescue” that was really nothing more than a couple of animal collectors. They’ve shut down due to lack or interest and funding it seems.
How do I know they were fakes? Well they had this list of animals that they “rescue” which included Wallabies. Well no one gave them any wallabies to rescue so what did they do? They posted want adds on every exotic animal site in North America desperate for someone to sell them a cheap wallaby within their price range which was stupidly low. Ads read like “Desperately need a Bennett’s Wallaby. Male or Female. Not more than $500”. Seriously weird. Where I live if people get wallabies they really want wallabies and don’t give them up to rescues or sell them for cheap, try 1500 to 5000 certianly not $500 for a Bennett’s Wallaby. So this fake “animal rescue” had to resign itself to “rescuing” degus and well it seems they got bored with it.
That is exactly the problem they had the animal for 3 weeks and bought it from an auction. I buy from auctions and have one this weekend in fact. However you have to give the animal some time to adjust to you and it’s new environment before ya start doing television interviews with it.
Auctions can be a place to buy or sell animals if you know what you are doing. If you don’t then don’t buy. Seriously don’t buy. Camels in the US are not your everyday livestock and to get a decent one you are gonna pay in excess of 5000 up over 70000. However you can pick up such animals for a few hunderd dollars at auctions at times. There are usually reasons the animals are being sold at auctions... IE a cull animal, a problem animal. For a first time camel buyer or any cameliad Llamas Alpacas I would suggest either getting a female or a gelding. Definately not a 4 year old male at an auction. It’s like someone getting a Stallion right off the bat without ever even riding a horse.
Problem I have is that everytime something like this happens with an animal that people get in their heads as being an “exotic” the public outcry is to ban ownership of all such animals even by those who know what they are doing.
Yes the same thing happens with certian breeds of dogs at times IE Pit Bulls and Rotties and in the distant past German Shepards and Dobies.
Also people make statements when things like this happen that it’s always happening with owners of exotics... which is not exactly true.... things happen like this sometimes as with any job risk. But they are not the norm as people would think. If they were than a story like this wouldn’t be getting as much attention as it is. It simply would not. It’s getting coverage cos it’s a strange, odd, not the norm story.
Maybe we should ban cars since so many car accidents happen everyday. People get hurt in factories everyday so why not ban factories. People slip on wet floors in malls and supermarkets so lets ban malls and supermarkets. ETC ETC
Certian “Animal Rights” groups like to use these types of few and far between stories to push their agenda (religion) on the public. Stuff like someone with an Illegal Tiger in the City and the next thing you know there is a law against having a flipping Anole.
Feel sorry for the people. But After seeing their set up in the videos I wasn’t really impressed..... Not enough room for the Camel or their Llamas or other animals. IE too many animals on 15 acres segregated into too small of pins..... camels enclosure was a bit barren with just a round bale of hay in the middle.
My Llamas, Sheep, Horses, and Donkeys at times have access to all our pastures except when we block them into one or another for their protection.... but they still have alot more room than these folks gave theirs. They perfer some areas to others. Our forest pasture is their favorite with rolling hills and lots of trees in the summer in the winter ya can’t get them away from the central pasture with it’s barns and such.
So not all people who own or breed “exotics” have them in poor quality set ups.
You're right. But like you said, the only ones the public ever hears about are the ones where there has been a problem (or abuse, etc.), and those almost go hand-in-hand with poor or insufficient conditions. Humans often buy an "exotic" and then want to put it in a postage-stamp pen/cage because it's what the human has available... nevermind what the animal actually needs to survive, let alone to actually thrive.
And while we're banning things.... Crabbing in the North Sea is one of (if not the) highest risk jobs. Let's ban crabbing or eating crab. You'd think if people were going to ban things, they would start with the highest risk things and work their way down from there. Too bad simple logical thought never seems to come into play.
And you nailed it regarding dogs. When I first got out of college, I wanted to get a Rottie. At that time, Rotts were one of the top 3 feared dogs by the public (Rotts, Dobes, and Shepherds). Right now it's Pits. Who knows what breed it will be 15 years from now. It's a shame... if people knew the real bite stats, they'd be banning Cocker Spaniels or Chihuahuas or something like that... not Pit Bulls. But breed bans are ridiculous anyway... it's the humans involved, not the dogs, who are at fault when it comes to dog bites.
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